You want to know something even worse about the status of Marco Polo's records of it being missing? Around the 1990s, Nigeria had the full film recordings of Season 1 and Season 2. Two full seasons of '60s Who right there and then to be returned to the BBC archives. However, a BBC intern had said to the Nigerian Boardcasting Station that "they're all out on video". Nigeria is known to have destroyed those copies. If we are lucky, the same person who took Web 3 might have taken something from Marco Polo.
The way you wrote that, and with my head still in the video, I thought at first you were talking about the original Marco Polo's records. I love it! Now, in my head canon, Marco Polo got a time machine, and he tried to destroy all the copies of the Doctor Who videos about him, for some exciting reason. 🧐
It's just such a great story on so many levels. Watching it I get the sense that Susan is Ping Cho's first real friend -- she probably spent most of her life surrounded by court advisors and suitors and this is the first time she gets to meet a regular girl who is her same age, its understandable how they instantly become inseparable. All the scenes where Ping Cho asks Susan if she really has to leave and that she makes sure she at least says goodbye tear my heart out. In the final episode where Ping Cho says "they are my friends forever", right before they get in the TARDIS to never return makes me so sad, and Marco's final narration is just a beautiful ending to a beautiful story
It would be amazing if someone miraculously found all 7 episodes in time for the 60th anniversary. If stories like Enemy of the World and individual parts of Web of Fear, Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace can be found before the 50th anniversary, who’s to believe we might find other missing episodes by then?
It does make me wonder if The Celestial Toymaker has been found (or is being animated) and that’s why RTD is including the character in the 60th. Like how Moffat included The Great Intelligence in The Snowmen and some eps of S7B due to The Web of Fear being found.
@@harrypainter7472 not true the special features to the beginning box set on one of the discs is a 7 minute bonus feature on the condensed story of Marco Polo using stills from the telesnap reconstruction, mixed with the audio track
I watched this when it was on. It was the first properly historical story on Doctor Who. The first had been cavemen, the second the Daleks. I disagree with the bloke who said it was boring. I remember I loved it, and I went to the junior public library and got out a book on Marco Polo and generally eight year old girls didn’t ask for such things. It stimulated a lifelong fascination with history. I have a BA and an MA in it and used to be on the committee of the London Society for Medieval Studies.
*My favourite Hartnell story and favourite historical story.* The story’s writing is beautiful, it’s characters are beautifully written, (according to surviving pictures and production photos) it looked beautiful, it’s music is beautiful, it was one of the Classic Series’ great gems and it kills me every time knowing that all 7 episodes are missing. The idea that for 7 weeks in 1964, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbra journeyed with Marco Polo across Cathay to see the Mighty Kublai Khan is inspiring and is the sought of thing that the Doctor would mention in a passing line because it would have been to big to do which just shows the great variety in 60s Doctor Who. Some may say that it’s too long but I would heavily disagree and say that one should not treat those stories like a simple one off episode of a nearly 60 year old show and rush through it, especially with the 60s stories. Treat it like a mini series and treat each episode individually.
As someone who sat through all seven episodes of this on its original broadcast, I can say that I thought it was very boring. I was ten when Doctor Who started and was immediately captivated by it. I was intrigued by the first story of the cavemen, I loved the Dalek serial and even the two part inside the Tardis story was interesting. But the Marco Polo story was interminable to a boy of my age, even though I was interested in history. I thought the Aztecs was much better because it was only four episodes and had a conciseness that this story completely lacked. I thought The Keys of Marinus that followed this story was much better.
The reconstructions have probably done Marco Polo a favour, as judging by the audio recordings seven episodes does start to drag. That said the sheer ambition of it makes it the missing story I most want to see
It's always interesting to hear original viewer reviews from lost stories. I'm a 90s millennial so these stories were already long lost by the time I got into the series and always thought there'd be some stories I'd never be able to see in my lifetime. Though I'm glad the Web of Fear had been found cos I wanted to see the Yeti in action from such a young age
I only saw the reconstruction around ten years back and - yeah, it could have lost two episodes and basically been fine. It's so weird to me because I didn't much care for it, found it boring, but everyone's calling it their favourite historical.
The Abominable Snowmen is the one whose disappearance is the one I miss the most. Aged 5 it is the very first story I remember watching on its broadcast. A part of my memory can never be refreshed.
Of wholly lost stories, for me it's either this or power of the daleks. The fact we are missing basically his first two stories in their entirety and half of the next one is really tragic.
A part of me is holding out hope that this story is out there somewhere even if it's just an episode or two and that it's in a private collector's hands and then at some point they will let someone see it so they can record the two pieces and send them up to the BBC. I really hope that this story was not destroyed or wiped.
I would like some future Who stories to take place over a large period of time as this one does. I just want some more risk taking & experimentation, I suppose.
In showing my housemates Classic Who, one of them remarked that The Aztecs was when the show Grew The Beard, but I argued that, if Marco Polo still properly existed that would be the one.
The sad thing about these lost stories is that, despite the quality that some of these early stories hold, if the show didn't keeps it's relevancy, even more stories of Doctor Who could've been completely lost, or at least as far as the general public was concerned. It's a miracle we have/found as many as we have. But at the same time knowing that some are still missing, certainly ones like this, will forever remain saddening. History really, but not even a centenary old before we lost it. I know it's too much to say, but it feels criminal.
I’m loving this content! Really interesting to know about the significant and weird goings on past and present of Doctor Who. Keep it up Mr. Tardis! (PS - Was so angry when I found out it’s lost when watching the classics, that cliffhanger on the previous episode!)
These episodes HAVE to exist somewhere. With the amount of people having watched it and the amount of countries that broadcast it there must be a copy somewhere. I know personal recording devices were not very common back then but out of the millions of people that watched these episodes chances are someone recorded it and just forgot about it in an attic or something. I hope.
That moment when Barbara and Susan talk under the stars has to be my favorite moment of the entire era. Like, it's like something out of the revival. i actually felt a real connection through it, even without any music. Now, I was born in the wilderness years, so I do find the 60s era stuff a bit slow, but this, this was incredible.
I've always liked the concept that the Doctor and companions are essentially landlocked. That they can't just hop in the Tardis and leave whenever they feel like it.
I think they've been holding out hope that it comes back, and also the historical have been known to be hard to animate based on the size of cast and number of setpieces.
The few animated reproductions of original episodes I have seen were painful to watch. They just don't put value on the visuals. It is like amateur hour. Perhaps now that Sony has Bad Wolf in it's stable we can hope for some professional recreations in the future.
I wish I had a TARDIS to retrieve the lost episodes...this series might be at the top of my list...on that note, I really enjoyed this review! Thanks, Mr. TARDIS.
Honestly, considering this story was a blast to watch, DESPITE being a lose cannon reconstruction, which are the bane of my existance due to my incredibly short atention span, I'd say this story is really good, and like you said, really is the holy grail of missing Doctor Who serials.
I envy the people who found this serial not boring. By the third time the group tried to convince marco that he was being duped, I was checked out. A few episodes too long of the same thing over and over. The Hartnell scenes, the susan scenes and the overall arch of Ping Cho's were compelling to me, but so drawn out
Just watched this story for the first time in several years. It had been so long I forgot most of the story. In my second viewing I found myself viewing Marco Polo in an interesting light. I don't consider Marco Polo to be a good guy, nor do I consider him to be bad, he is a neutral force. He is as willing to aid The Doctor and Co. As he is to aid Tegana. His motivation stems from his trust of both parties which often puts him at odds against The Doctor and mostly Ian. I was kind of flip flopping on whether I liked Marco Polo or hated him. I think I liked him in the end when the doctor and co escapes but I was kind of mixed on him throughout the story.
2:13 You know, I thought you were going to say "the yellowface". 7:15 Did she use the honorific "sama"? 14:30 Yeah, I prefer this interpretation and it makes so much more sense. Listen to the start of his laughter. That's weep-laughing. That's "I'm going insane!" laughter. "I know he is, yet still!" The Doctor proclaims. This isn't a flub, he's in-character aware he should not be laughing at this moment. And why wouldn't he be? He stole the damn thing in the first place! The sheer _irony_ of the situation. This great explorer is stealing the thing he stole to see the universe. And it's all his fault. He never read her manual, he never learned how she worked, he didn't bother getting paranoid about fixing her when the Chameleon Circuit broke, he _just_ almost died because of another technical fault, and the only reason they're even out here with these humans is because he decided "whelp they know too much, time to kidnap them and abscond from this time period!" This is the death of, as the extended "canon" says his real name is, d³∑x₂ (or Theta Sigma for short) and the true birth of The Doctor. It's all processing right now for him; who he is, what he is, what he was, what he shall be, and it's basically the heroic equivalent of The Joker's One Bad Day. It fits his arc so well, because we get another instant classic Doctorism by the end: he makes the weirdest friends, his first approach is friendship and peace. Before, he was still a Time Lord at his heart, so convinced of his own superiority. The laughing madness is that he realizes he's no better than a human and in fact is at his heart more akin to Marco than anything. He just got screwed over a man who, without his ego preventing him from accepting it, is so much like him. And within a short time by his standards, he's become able to become instant besties with a human he just met, something _impossible_ for this man beforehand. The laughing works perfectly.
I’ve been thinking over the last week since using AI ChatGPT for some creative projects, if we will be only a few years away from an AI totally recreating the entire 7 episode story based on all available source material. This would be the most epic reclamation of lost works in human history.
I met Derren Nesbitt a few years ago and as I love the recon asked him about it and if he'd want it to be found some day. To my surprise he was very negative saying "oh god no. Who wants 7 episodes returned of some cheap silly children's program"...I was actually shocked and slightly annoyed that he held it in so little regard
They most likely did not hire Asians from the outside of BBC, and just hired from central casting as a cost saving. The yellow face by todays standard is unacceptable but you have to remember not to judge from outside the time period. Hopefully they will find a copy of this in a box stored somewhere on an old shelf
Not that there were many experienced Chinese actors available in the UK at the time. Indeed, it's notable that even the original _American_ stage production of "The World of Suzie Wong" had a lead actress who couldn't speak English and learned her lines phonetically. That aside, we'd have to wait a very long time before a Chinese actor (David Yip) was given a leading role on British TV, and that was in 1981.
KillerBebe Yes and no - yes, context matters, but it doesn't excuse a bad thing being a bad thing in any era. Plus, it should be flagged up for those who may find it distracting or offensive if they want to listen to the story - it'd be like reviewing The Jazz Singer and never mentioning the blackface song number.
@@ftumschk A lead role yes, but one of a trio of leads in 1963's "The Sentimental Agent" was Burt Kwouk. I doubt the BBC could afford him in those days though. They got him much later for Tenko.
I kind of wish the BBC had their own time machine so they could go back and record all those lost episodes when they came out. Also, they could have early Doctors show up for their anniversaries
They should remake the entire story with David Bradley and Claudia Grant. Also recast, Ian and Barbara. With the added bonus of casting actual Chinese actors.
19:35 Pathos rhymes with "doss", not "dose". "Pathowce"is a silly Americanised mangling of the word, for which there is no excuse or justification. Pathos, thanos, kudos, mythos (etc) are all Greek words explicitly spelt with a short "o" (omicron) as in "cod", not a long "o" (omega) as in "code".
@@DriverHenryWho3245 No, I was stating fact and pointing out the correct pronunciation of a fairly simple word... one which Brits pronounced correctly until the creeping Americanisation of recent years started to infect us with its ludicrious mispronunciation of such words. There's no omega in "πάθος" (pathos), so it should be pronounced with a short "o" as in cod, not a long "o" as in code. It's as easy as that - nothing to do with grammar, just basic phonetics.
@@ClausB252 Words like "code" only rhyme with "owed" among English speakers and other anglophones. The long "o" (omega) is just that - a long, flat "o" sound. If you're familiar with the native British accents of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Newcastle, Wales or Scotland, they also have a pure, flat "long o", and it's the same in practically every other language I know of, apart from English. BTW, pronouncing code as "cayd" (or snow as "snay", etc) is a fairly recent affectation acquired by the English upper classes and what we used to call Sloane Rangers.
I was a teenager when this aired. I remember it as tedious boring claptrap lacking any of the excitement or compulsion required by a Saturday evening serial. Getting wiped was the best thing that could happen to it for the sake of future generations. Actually, all the Who historicals were at the best, poor. It took the programme far too long to realise this and abandon them to the abyss where they belonged.
It’s all a bit of a complicated legal mess, but it basically boils down to: - agreements with the actor’s union Equity limited the show to two airings (initial airing and one possible rerun), and a retention limit in the recording for two years - the home video market didn’t really exist back then, so there wasn’t serious consideration given to long form resale, particularly for a show which, at the time, was seen as kids sci fi - the show was filmed on video tape, but video tape was too expensive to buy in excess, so the general practice at the time was to copy the videotape recording to film for archiving, then wipe and reuse the videotape for programme - TV studios in the day only had so much space they could afford for archiving recordings, so these recordings were typically junked after seven years to make space It’s ultimately just the standards and practices of the day. Fortunately, attitudes towards media preservation have progressed since then. The RUclipsr Josh Snares has several documentaries on the history of the lost episodes of Doctor Who.
The historical episodes in season 1 are really good apart from the cavemen while the sci fi ones tend to be bullocks. I wish they did more stuff like this where the doctor just had an adventure with a historical figure without aliens and the like involved.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
You want to know something even worse about the status of Marco Polo's records of it being missing? Around the 1990s, Nigeria had the full film recordings of Season 1 and Season 2. Two full seasons of '60s Who right there and then to be returned to the BBC archives. However, a BBC intern had said to the Nigerian Boardcasting Station that "they're all out on video". Nigeria is known to have destroyed those copies. If we are lucky, the same person who took Web 3 might have taken something from Marco Polo.
The way you wrote that, and with my head still in the video, I thought at first you were talking about the original Marco Polo's records. I love it! Now, in my head canon, Marco Polo got a time machine, and he tried to destroy all the copies of the Doctor Who videos about him, for some exciting reason. 🧐
Marco Polo’s narration with map illustrations almost gives vibes of Indiana Jones
It's just such a great story on so many levels. Watching it I get the sense that Susan is Ping Cho's first real friend -- she probably spent most of her life surrounded by court advisors and suitors and this is the first time she gets to meet a regular girl who is her same age, its understandable how they instantly become inseparable. All the scenes where Ping Cho asks Susan if she really has to leave and that she makes sure she at least says goodbye tear my heart out. In the final episode where Ping Cho says "they are my friends forever", right before they get in the TARDIS to never return makes me so sad, and Marco's final narration is just a beautiful ending to a beautiful story
Likely Susan’s first teenage friend; she didn’t seem very connected at Coal Hill!
It would be amazing if someone miraculously found all 7 episodes in time for the 60th anniversary. If stories like Enemy of the World and individual parts of Web of Fear, Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace can be found before the 50th anniversary, who’s to believe we might find other missing episodes by then?
It does make me wonder if The Celestial Toymaker has been found (or is being animated) and that’s why RTD is including the character in the 60th. Like how Moffat included The Great Intelligence in The Snowmen and some eps of S7B due to The Web of Fear being found.
bladersmosh
The recordings are not missing, the bbc destroyed them, because they were taking up space on the shelves!
@@tokublwhovianooooh that is a fun theory. I hope we get at least a few episodes back for the 60th
Even just one episode of Marco Polo would be awesome. We don't even have a clip of it.
@@harrypainter7472 not true the special features to the beginning box set on one of the discs is a 7 minute bonus feature on the condensed story of Marco Polo using stills from the telesnap reconstruction, mixed with the audio track
I watched this when it was on. It was the first properly historical story on Doctor Who. The first had been cavemen, the second the Daleks. I disagree with the bloke who said it was boring. I remember I loved it, and I went to the junior public library and got out a book on Marco Polo and generally eight year old girls didn’t ask for such things. It stimulated a lifelong fascination with history. I have a BA and an MA in it and used to be on the committee of the London Society for Medieval Studies.
I know this is off topic, (and I’m 9 months late) but, how is “The Daleks” properly historical?
@@thatguy3968 Doctor Who was subtitled An Adventure through Time and Space. I guess they were space.
They should have had a scene in which everyone was lost in the water, and Marco had to find them as they called out to him.
What, a sort of Marco water-polo?
@@nigeldepledge3790 More like Marco water tennis.
*My favourite Hartnell story and favourite historical story.* The story’s writing is beautiful, it’s characters are beautifully written, (according to surviving pictures and production photos) it looked beautiful, it’s music is beautiful, it was one of the Classic Series’ great gems and it kills me every time knowing that all 7 episodes are missing. The idea that for 7 weeks in 1964, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbra journeyed with Marco Polo across Cathay to see the Mighty Kublai Khan is inspiring and is the sought of thing that the Doctor would mention in a passing line because it would have been to big to do which just shows the great variety in 60s Doctor Who. Some may say that it’s too long but I would heavily disagree and say that one should not treat those stories like a simple one off episode of a nearly 60 year old show and rush through it, especially with the 60s stories. Treat it like a mini series and treat each episode individually.
As someone who sat through all seven episodes of this on its original broadcast, I can say that I thought it was very boring. I was ten when Doctor Who started and was immediately captivated by it. I was intrigued by the first story of the cavemen, I loved the Dalek serial and even the two part inside the Tardis story was interesting. But the Marco Polo story was interminable to a boy of my age, even though I was interested in history. I thought the Aztecs was much better because it was only four episodes and had a conciseness that this story completely lacked. I thought The Keys of Marinus that followed this story was much better.
Aztecs was better for those exact reasons. Marco Polo is a good story but could have lost 2 episodes and been a lot better off.
The reconstructions have probably done Marco Polo a favour, as judging by the audio recordings seven episodes does start to drag. That said the sheer ambition of it makes it the missing story I most want to see
Yes as an 8 year old in '63 it did drag slightly, had to convince the old man to watch but he was all over this one 😆 🤣
It's always interesting to hear original viewer reviews from lost stories.
I'm a 90s millennial so these stories were already long lost by the time I got into the series and always thought there'd be some stories I'd never be able to see in my lifetime.
Though I'm glad the Web of Fear had been found cos I wanted to see the Yeti in action from such a young age
I only saw the reconstruction around ten years back and - yeah, it could have lost two episodes and basically been fine. It's so weird to me because I didn't much care for it, found it boring, but everyone's calling it their favourite historical.
The Abominable Snowmen is the one whose disappearance is the one I miss the most. Aged 5 it is the very first story I remember watching on its broadcast. A part of my memory can never be refreshed.
Fs in chat for Josh Snares
One of the very few I've ever heard state the First Doctor as being their favourite.
Fs? What does that mean?
@@frankshailes3205 it's the "press F to pay respects" meme
Pouring one out.
F for Josh Snares.
I completely agree! Of all the stories to be missing, THIS is the one that hurts the most.
For me, it is Daleks' Master Plan. Marco Polo is second. How possibly the most extensive Dalek story can be mostly lost to time is so sad.
Of wholly lost stories, for me it's either this or power of the daleks. The fact we are missing basically his first two stories in their entirety and half of the next one is really tragic.
@@MSDOSProjectis the script also missing for these episodes? They are only truly lost if the script is gone as well.
A part of me is holding out hope that this story is out there somewhere even if it's just an episode or two and that it's in a private collector's hands and then at some point they will let someone see it so they can record the two pieces and send them up to the BBC.
I really hope that this story was not destroyed or wiped.
I would like some future Who stories to take place over a large period of time as this one does. I just want some more risk taking & experimentation, I suppose.
Hopefully with that Dis cash, Russell will have the guts🤞🏻
In showing my housemates Classic Who, one of them remarked that The Aztecs was when the show Grew The Beard, but I argued that, if Marco Polo still properly existed that would be the one.
Terry Nation wrote a non-Dalek story??? "My Lord, is that legal???'
Did you miss the first episode?
@@TheSeafordian No???...
@@tritonk1759 I don’t know what he’s insinuating. Terry Nation didn’t write the first story 🤷♂️
He wrote two non-Dalek stories for Doctor Who... eventually.
@@frankshailes3205 Well Key’s of Marinus is season 1 so he did diversify pretty quick. It took him forever after to make a non Dalek story again.
The sad thing about these lost stories is that, despite the quality that some of these early stories hold, if the show didn't keeps it's relevancy, even more stories of Doctor Who could've been completely lost, or at least as far as the general public was concerned. It's a miracle we have/found as many as we have. But at the same time knowing that some are still missing, certainly ones like this, will forever remain saddening. History really, but not even a centenary old before we lost it. I know it's too much to say, but it feels criminal.
This & Dalek's Master Plan R what I'd petition the BBC to crowd fund in order to animate them.
I’m loving this content! Really interesting to know about the significant and weird goings on past and present of Doctor Who. Keep it up Mr. Tardis! (PS - Was so angry when I found out it’s lost when watching the classics, that cliffhanger on the previous episode!)
I feel so bad for all the doctor who nerds whose dvd collections will never be complete. the ocd must drive them mad.
There are custom made DVDs with the Loose Cannon recons on them that you can buy online. I bought a bunch of those to complete my collection.
I just wish someone would build themselves a TARDIS, bugger off back to the 60's and make copies of all the missing episodes.
These episodes HAVE to exist somewhere. With the amount of people having watched it and the amount of countries that broadcast it there must be a copy somewhere. I know personal recording devices were not very common back then but out of the millions of people that watched these episodes chances are someone recorded it and just forgot about it in an attic or something. I hope.
That moment when Barbara and Susan talk under the stars has to be my favorite moment of the entire era. Like, it's like something out of the revival. i actually felt a real connection through it, even without any music. Now, I was born in the wilderness years, so I do find the 60s era stuff a bit slow, but this, this was incredible.
I've always liked the concept that the Doctor and companions are essentially landlocked. That they can't just hop in the Tardis and leave whenever they feel like it.
I'm hoping one day Marco Polo will get animated ( if The animation makes a comeback )
I think they've been holding out hope that it comes back, and also the historical have been known to be hard to animate based on the size of cast and number of setpieces.
The few animated reproductions of original episodes I have seen were painful to watch. They just don't put value on the visuals. It is like amateur hour. Perhaps now that Sony has Bad Wolf in it's stable we can hope for some professional recreations in the future.
I love the Doctor's laughter in the first episode. Scripted or not, it works for me.
Tegana really strikes me as like Iago in this story, always whispering in Marco's ear and undermining his opinion and trust in Ian and the Tardis crew
Easily my favourite Hartnell story, and honestly in my top 10 of all time (maybe even top 5).
Fun fact: Ping-Cho (Zienia Merton) would later go on to play as Data Analyst Sandra Benes in Gerry Anderson's Space 1999 in 1975
I wish I had a TARDIS to retrieve the lost episodes...this series might be at the top of my list...on that note, I really enjoyed this review! Thanks, Mr. TARDIS.
20:50 This EvilDalek79 sounds like a nerd! 🤓
This is one of the stories I'd most want to see recovered alongside the crusade, daleks Masterplan and the massacre
Honestly, considering this story was a blast to watch, DESPITE being a lose cannon reconstruction, which are the bane of my existance due to my incredibly short atention span, I'd say this story is really good, and like you said, really is the holy grail of missing Doctor Who serials.
I wish I was alive in the '60s so I could see the missing episodes live! It really sucks being born in 1999 sometimes!
I envy the people who found this serial not boring. By the third time the group tried to convince marco that he was being duped, I was checked out. A few episodes too long of the same thing over and over. The Hartnell scenes, the susan scenes and the overall arch of Ping Cho's were compelling to me, but so drawn out
Absolutely adored this story. Imagination was enough for me, i keep on forgetting that it's lost ❤
Just watched this story for the first time in several years. It had been so long I forgot most of the story. In my second viewing I found myself viewing Marco Polo in an interesting light. I don't consider Marco Polo to be a good guy, nor do I consider him to be bad, he is a neutral force. He is as willing to aid The Doctor and Co. As he is to aid Tegana. His motivation stems from his trust of both parties which often puts him at odds against The Doctor and mostly Ian. I was kind of flip flopping on whether I liked Marco Polo or hated him. I think I liked him in the end when the doctor and co escapes but I was kind of mixed on him throughout the story.
2:13 You know, I thought you were going to say "the yellowface".
7:15 Did she use the honorific "sama"?
14:30 Yeah, I prefer this interpretation and it makes so much more sense. Listen to the start of his laughter. That's weep-laughing. That's "I'm going insane!" laughter. "I know he is, yet still!" The Doctor proclaims. This isn't a flub, he's in-character aware he should not be laughing at this moment. And why wouldn't he be? He stole the damn thing in the first place! The sheer _irony_ of the situation. This great explorer is stealing the thing he stole to see the universe. And it's all his fault. He never read her manual, he never learned how she worked, he didn't bother getting paranoid about fixing her when the Chameleon Circuit broke, he _just_ almost died because of another technical fault, and the only reason they're even out here with these humans is because he decided "whelp they know too much, time to kidnap them and abscond from this time period!"
This is the death of, as the extended "canon" says his real name is, d³∑x₂ (or Theta Sigma for short) and the true birth of The Doctor. It's all processing right now for him; who he is, what he is, what he was, what he shall be, and it's basically the heroic equivalent of The Joker's One Bad Day. It fits his arc so well, because we get another instant classic Doctorism by the end: he makes the weirdest friends, his first approach is friendship and peace. Before, he was still a Time Lord at his heart, so convinced of his own superiority. The laughing madness is that he realizes he's no better than a human and in fact is at his heart more akin to Marco than anything. He just got screwed over a man who, without his ego preventing him from accepting it, is so much like him. And within a short time by his standards, he's become able to become instant besties with a human he just met, something _impossible_ for this man beforehand. The laughing works perfectly.
The audiobook of the novelization, or there one built from episode audio?
Cathay not cafe.
"Playing with Kublai and being so good that he wins half of asia"
Yup, that's the First Doctor to you all, just an ordinary day in Old Hartnel's life.
I think that Derren Nesbit played Thomas Dodd in Big Finish's Doctor Who: Spare Parts
Just finished listening to it. Great story!
A classic? I think this a rose tinted view of something we don't have. Remember Tomb of the Cybermen?
I have greatly enjoyed the Loose Cannon reconstructions of Marco Polo. I hope episodes of this serial are found someday.
I’ve been thinking over the last week since using AI ChatGPT for some creative projects, if we will be only a few years away from an AI totally recreating the entire 7 episode story based on all available source material.
This would be the most epic reclamation of lost works in human history.
Im pretty sure IA will be able to fully recreate and even create new classic DW stories by the time the 100th anniversary comes
I would rather Marco Polo be lost forever than entirely recreated by ai
I met Derren Nesbitt a few years ago and as I love the recon asked him about it and if he'd want it to be found some day. To my surprise he was very negative saying "oh god no. Who wants 7 episodes returned of some cheap silly children's program"...I was actually shocked and slightly annoyed that he held it in so little regard
They most likely did not hire Asians from the outside of BBC, and just hired from central casting as a cost saving. The yellow face by todays standard is unacceptable but you have to remember not to judge from outside the time period. Hopefully they will find a copy of this in a box stored somewhere on an old shelf
Not that there were many experienced Chinese actors available in the UK at the time. Indeed, it's notable that even the original _American_ stage production of "The World of Suzie Wong" had a lead actress who couldn't speak English and learned her lines phonetically. That aside, we'd have to wait a very long time before a Chinese actor (David Yip) was given a leading role on British TV, and that was in 1981.
KillerBebe Yes and no - yes, context matters, but it doesn't excuse a bad thing being a bad thing in any era. Plus, it should be flagged up for those who may find it distracting or offensive if they want to listen to the story - it'd be like reviewing The Jazz Singer and never mentioning the blackface song number.
@@ftumschk A lead role yes, but one of a trio of leads in 1963's "The Sentimental Agent" was Burt Kwouk. I doubt the BBC could afford him in those days though. They got him much later for Tenko.
I hope this can be remade as an audio drama and as an animated reconstruction of all seven episodes.
I'd love for it to be animated too. But given the ensemble cast of characters and its numerous settings, it would be a tricky task.
I kind of wish the BBC had their own time machine so they could go back and record all those lost episodes when they came out. Also, they could have early Doctors show up for their anniversaries
They should remake the entire story with David Bradley and Claudia Grant. Also recast, Ian and Barbara. With the added bonus of casting actual Chinese actors.
2:52 poor josh.
I like Marco Polo
I might need to watch this now
Well good luck with that
I recommend the second Loose Cannon reconstruction on Dailymotion.
@@frankshailes3205 thank you will check it out
@@vocalist92 thanks
19:35 Pathos rhymes with "doss", not "dose". "Pathowce"is a silly Americanised mangling of the word, for which there is no excuse or justification. Pathos, thanos, kudos, mythos (etc) are all Greek words explicitly spelt with a short "o" (omicron) as in "cod", not a long "o" (omega) as in "code".
Grammar police
@@DriverHenryWho3245 No, I was stating fact and pointing out the correct pronunciation of a fairly simple word... one which Brits pronounced correctly until the creeping Americanisation of recent years started to infect us with its ludicrious mispronunciation of such words.
There's no omega in "πάθος" (pathos), so it should be pronounced with a short "o" as in cod, not a long "o" as in code. It's as easy as that - nothing to do with grammar, just basic phonetics.
@@ftumschk you mean long o as in code which sounds like coyd or cayd?
@@ClausB252 Words like "code" only rhyme with "owed" among English speakers and other anglophones. The long "o" (omega) is just that - a long, flat "o" sound. If you're familiar with the native British accents of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Newcastle, Wales or Scotland, they also have a pure, flat "long o", and it's the same in practically every other language I know of, apart from English.
BTW, pronouncing code as "cayd" (or snow as "snay", etc) is a fairly recent affectation acquired by the English upper classes and what we used to call Sloane Rangers.
Yeah…but I like how they sound with a long O more than a short O, so I’ll gladly be wrong.
I was a teenager when this aired. I remember it as tedious boring claptrap lacking any of the excitement or compulsion required by a Saturday evening serial. Getting wiped was the best thing that could happen to it for the sake of future generations. Actually, all the Who historicals were at the best, poor. It took the programme far too long to realise this and abandon them to the abyss where they belonged.
A great story but far too long!
The Daleks’ Master Plan would like a word
@@tokublwhovian If the Daleks' Masterplan was a eight parter and not missing I would consider it the greatest Hartnell story.
Am I the only one looking at the thumb nail wondering whether the TARDIS has a flat..
(Oh wow! It was actually broken xD )
Why is this lost. I recently started watching the original series on tubi because they added William hertnell up to Sylvester McCoy
It’s all a bit of a complicated legal mess, but it basically boils down to:
- agreements with the actor’s union Equity limited the show to two airings (initial airing and one possible rerun), and a retention limit in the recording for two years
- the home video market didn’t really exist back then, so there wasn’t serious consideration given to long form resale, particularly for a show which, at the time, was seen as kids sci fi
- the show was filmed on video tape, but video tape was too expensive to buy in excess, so the general practice at the time was to copy the videotape recording to film for archiving, then wipe and reuse the videotape for programme
- TV studios in the day only had so much space they could afford for archiving recordings, so these recordings were typically junked after seven years to make space
It’s ultimately just the standards and practices of the day. Fortunately, attitudes towards media preservation have progressed since then. The RUclipsr Josh Snares has several documentaries on the history of the lost episodes of Doctor Who.
The historical episodes in season 1 are really good apart from the cavemen while the sci fi ones tend to be bullocks. I wish they did more stuff like this where the doctor just had an adventure with a historical figure without aliens and the like involved.
What's with the backg.round music? It has nothing to do with Doctor Who
It's the music from 'Marco Polo'.